52 pages · PDF
Writing the Life: A Student’s Guide to Memoir
Memoir principles, ethics and privacy, scene and structure work, a revision ladder, guided exercises, and a 14-day practice plan.
Direct From the Author · Silver Current Press
Store
Writing guides and workbooks, teaching analyses and lesson plans drawn from three decades in the classroom, and signed copies of the books themselves — all available direct, with more of the author's cut going toward the next book.
The store is being stocked. Checkout is launching soon through Payhip. Every item below shows its planned price — the “Notify Me” button will switch to “Buy Now” the moment each product goes live. Want a head start? Email James to reserve a copy now.
For Writers & Students
Writing Guides & Workbooks
Craft handouts, submission guides, and literary-analysis workbooks — the paid, print-ready companions to the free guides.
18 pages · PDF
Memoir Types & Model Outlines
Ten memoir types — coming-of-age, grief, journey, identity, and more — each with published models and a tailored outline.
18 pages · PDF
Writing the Memoir: A Craft Handout
Five-part reference — what memoir is, the types and their techniques, a cross-cutting technique table, and three master outlines.
12 pages · PDF
The Art of Telling a Story
A six-lesson fiction bundle on character, scene, dialogue, voice, structure, and revision — each paired with a model text, exercises, and a rubric.
21 pages · PDF
Silver Current Writing Workshop Handbook
A full twelve-week workshop curriculum — weekly readings, craft principles, exercises, workshop protocol, and a closing reflection.
34 pages · PDF
Student Workbook for Literary Analysis
A complete literary-analysis workbook with guided close-reading exercises, thematic prompts, and model annotations across genres.
20 pages · PDF
A Companion to Literary Analysis
A concise instructional textbook covering close reading, thematic tracing, and the vocabulary of craft — built to pair with the Student Workbook.
4 titles · PDF
Submission Guides Bundle
Submitting Short Stories, Poetry Submission Suggestions, and The Submitter’s Companion — three guides on placing work with literary journals, bundled at a discount.
For Teachers
Teaching Analyses & Lesson Plans
Classroom-ready literary analyses and full lesson plans, moving over from Amazon to be sold here directly.
Instructor Lecture · PDF
Teaching the Memoir Types
A lecture companion to the memoir unit — teaching scripts, common student pitfalls, discussion prompts, and timed in-class exercises for each of the ten memoir types.
Lesson Plan Set · PDF
Give Them Unquiet Dreams: A Classroom Study Guide
Chapter-by-chapter discussion questions, thematic units on memory and inherited silence, and assessment-ready essay prompts for the Kirkus-starred novel.
Lesson Plan Set · PDF
Molly Bonamici: Analysis & Lesson Plans
A full teaching unit on voice, unreliable narration, and resilience — built around the Defoe-inflected heroine of Molly Bonamici.
Lesson Plan Set · PDF
Assumptions and Other Stories: A Teaching Unit
Story-by-story analyses and discussion-ready lesson plans for the short story collection, with attention to recurring imagery and grace-through-the-grotesque.
More teaching analyses and lesson plans are moving over from Amazon on a rolling basis — check back, or email James to request a specific title next.
Signed & Direct
Books
The novels and the poetry collection, ordered directly — signed on request.
Novel · Kirkus Starred
Give Them Unquiet Dreams
Set in 1970s Irish Catholic Boston — a novel of haunted families, inherited silences, and the slow weather of memory.
“A luminous, beautifully told fairy tale grounded in history and elevated by spirit.” — Kirkus Reviews
Also available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle.
Poetry Collection
Crossings: Selected Poems
Twenty poems of family, inheritance, and threshold, built from a recurring vocabulary of touch, water, and the passage from darkness into light.
Also available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook.